And it wasnt that big a deal, but it was a big deal and it led to even further big deals because in the aftermath of watergate we had the Rockefeller Commission and the Church Committee investigations that showed how deeply riddled the u. S. Government was with this kind of abuse of power. But watergate itself was much more than one burglary. That was actually the third burglary they had pulled off, and as repercussions you had the president resigning. At the same time you had the Vice President resigning. You had two attorney generals resigning. All told, 12 corporations and i think 48 individuals pled guilty and maybe 2 dozen men went to jail. How significant was the resignation of spear spiro agnew that led to the appointment of gerald ford. I think its significant in itself. But i think theres a good chance that nixon would not have been impeached if he had agnew as insurance. There was really no great payoff for the democrats to get rid of nixon in order just to get agnew. A weake
Off. Would have come in on a crest of patriotic taking over now in a crisis feeling out in the country, so i feel that ago knews troubles which had nothing to do with watergate were a major part and probably the most skillfully crafted Foreign Policy leader. I agree with part of that. I believe if you had taken away watergate and if he had managed to get to a second term of course, there was still vietnam. To put that issue aside and just say that nothing had happened bad in the second term, i think he would have been he wouldnt have been on rushmore but he would have been in the 1920s or high teens. But he took on this unbelievably difficult task taking on this war at a time when the country was as divided as in the civil war. Its no and he still managed to put together a structure for the kind of multipolar world that we live in today, opening china, soviet union, allowing japan and germany to rebuild. I still think that and then given todays polarize politics politics, you have to l
And it was not that big a deal. It was a big deal and lead to further big deals because in the aftermath of watergate, it had the rockefeller and Church Committee investigations that rattled theeeply u. S. Government was with this abuse of power. Watergate was much more than one burglary. That was the third burglary they pulled off. As repercussions, you had the president resigning. You had the Vice President resigning two attorney generals resigning. 12 corporations and individuals pled guilty and maybe two dozen men went to jail. How significant was the w thatation of spiro agne led to the appointment of gerald ford . I think it was significant in itself. I think there is a good chance nixon would not have been impeached if he had agnew as insurance. It was no great payoff for the democrats to get rid of nixon just to get agnew. Nixon might have been better for them in the 1974 elections than agnew. Agnews troubles which had nothing to do with watergate were a major part of what happ
An american tragedy. This program is about one hour. 40 years ago, the white house was the scene. We will continue with your calls and comments on American History tv. Our guest is john farrell who is coming out with a new book, Richard Nixon an american tragedy. Thanks for being with us on American History tv. You wrote a piece for politico and said this dwarfed any other political scandal in American History. He tried to put the entire nixon presidency in context. How so . Talking was sort of a point over the years that watergate was this third rate burglary, that everybody did it, and it was not that big a deal. It was a big deal and lead to further big deals because in the aftermath of watergate, it had the rockefeller and Church Committee investigations that rattled theeeply u. S. Government was with this abuse of power. Watergate was much more than one burglary. That was the third burglary they pulled off. As repercussions, you had the president resigning. You had the Vice Presid